Friday, August 15, 2008

Overlord gets more "evil"

That's just great news because I love the first one. I was playing it on the 360 (before it decided to die) and now I'm playing it again but now it's the version Overlord Raising Hell on the PS3 (basically Overlord + Expansion). Once again, one can play a malevolent overlord in a rather open world.

The Overlord can swing his weapon, cast a number of support and offensive spells but he's basically weak by himself. Minion control is very important to this game. And it shows that the team that made this game had put in proper thought into the control scheme.

Playing an evil Overlord is fun, and the controls for the console versions made it easy to get into the fun of being an evil leader leading a horde. (I have not played the PC version so I have comments about that.) It's so intuitive that you can run your Overlord around and control your horde of minions at the same time.

The minions do not require micromanagement, since they smash just about anything around them or gets in their way. They'll pick up and equip stuff they can use, they will pick potions and gold and bring them to you. And they won't attack non-hostiles unless you tell them to. (Except sheep and bugs which they will kill to yield life essences for minion population growth). If they die, it's only because you have been careless.

As there are four different types of minions (melee brown minions, red fireball-throwing minions, green poison resistant sneaky minions, blue healer type minions) , you need to switch to controlling specific groups from time to time to overcome obstacles. And sometimes you only need one minion go pick up something. Or you want the red minions to stay at a good spot for hurling fireballs down on your enemies while your brown minions close in to attack. It's all very easy to execute and in real time too.

The game pokes fun at fantasy game and story stereotypes, so nothing is taken seriously. You still have a choice to be benevolent at times, so the game isn't forcing you to play all evil all the time. It's an adventure with puzzle and tactical elements, and a little bit of RPG.